Report: This Internet Thing Is Really Catching On

In your transitional Monday media column: the State of the Media is okay, James O'Keefe may not be a totally trustworthy journalist, hiring at HuffPo, Lou Dobbs is back, Larry King may join The Daily Show, and Mental Floss has a mental owner.

Rejoice, people who love media and also surveys: the annual "State of the Media" report is here! Important soundbites: Newspapers continue to decline! Cable news audiences are shrinking! More people are reading news on their cell phones! The internet is creeping up on television as the leading news place! Online ads surpass print ads! And soundbites continue to be detrimental to real journalism! Read all about it!

Shocker: NPR reports that the James O'Keefe video that forced NPR fundraiser Ron Schiller to resign had parts that were "taken out of context." Well, I never. Related: nobody thinks the people running NPR have their shit together very much these days.

More new hires and promotions at the Huffington Post, the Future of (AOL) Journalism! Twitter cofounder Biz Stone is now HuffPo's "Strategic Adviser For Social Impact," which could mean anything or nothing at all. John Montorio, a veteran of the LAT and the NYT, is the new culture and entertainment editor; and Howard Fineman, one of journalism's blandest worshipers of conventional wisdom, is HuffPo's new editorial director. They also hired ten new reporters, so at least something good is coming out of this (if you discount the hundreds laid off last week). Cool.

Lou Dobbsreturns to TV tonight! On the Fox Business Network, though, not a real network. "His new show is likely to feel familiar to his fans, as Dobbs intends to dive into the complex public policy and economic issues that drive society." Dive in and hit his head, probably. Haw haw.

Larry King, on the other hand, is reportedly in talks to become an "occasional contributor" to The Daily Show, which airs on a real network, Comedy Central. All Larry King cares about is being better than Lou Dobbs. That and pudding. That's it.

Mental Floss—a good magazine to read on the toilet—has been purchased by former Maxim owner and always entertaining psycho Felix Dennis.